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Gokul Alex

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Gokul Alex

IT Architect at IBM India

IBM India Pvt Ltd

Gokul Alex is a member of:

Managing professional as well as personal life

That is a good question. I am passionate about beauty and perfection in life. So wherever I engage I try to carve out a beautiful artifact. Through the art of prioritizing the activities I strike a balance between professional and personal life.

Views about 'Tech product Introduction is weak among Indians'

Product Development or Product engineering requires a solid production oriented Job market from end to end. Since our current job markets are controlled by Global demands and supply, we are carried away by the services boom. To emerge as a Product nation, India need to align itself to a rapid production methodology and innovation culture. It is very important that Governments should promote start-ups and companies that works on the product development front. We should have orientation and incubation programs for Product Development enthusiasts. I guess these are some small steps we can make in this direction. And I believe, India as such does not have an attitude development to the art and science of product development. Hence I am optimist that things will get better.

Family Background

I hail from a middle class family background and My father is a retired Govt. Employee. My brother is pursuing his academic research in Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. My family has been my constant inspiration to strike a creative note in all my professional engagements.

Challenges faced in job

Achieving Project delivery execution has been my target before stepping into the Architect role. Ever since the beginning of my IT architect days, most challenging part of my job is to sell the solution to the non-technical people, whether it is in the organization or at the customer-end.

I believe with more and more of Business IT convergence this challenge will transform to opportunities.

Goals and Ambitions

Given my academic interest in basic sciences like Physics and Mathematics, the new trends in IT for the streams of Data Science, Cognitive Computing and Semantic Web are really motivating for me. Pursuing research focused on these areas is one of my goals for the next 5 years. In addition to that I aspire to shape up my architect career based on a holistic enterprise perspective within a few years to come.

My achievement

Delivering Excellence for the Client experiences has been the most rewarding moments of my professional life. Receiving the Best Employee Award from Citibank EMEA Head during my Onsite engagement at Citibank Singapore is one such moment. This was for my ECM project delivery in Citibank Nordic regions. In addition presenting an idea at IBM DeveloperWorks conference and receiving the Orion award from IBM GBS Industrial Sector leader is another cherishing moment of my life.

My advice

Nice question again. I don't believe I have a common answer to all the job aspirants in the field of IT. Still I believe following professional approach can make your early days in IT exciting and motivating for a long innings.
Do's
1. Take Ownership of the activities you are assigned.
2. Be networked with peers and leaders in your company.
4. Always be open to take up any technology stack.
5. Try to be a perfectionist in your early days. It will bring discipline in your career.

Don't
1. Be a job hopper.
2. Follow the trends blindly.
3. Lose focus from the project deliverable however small they are
4. Shy away from responsibilities.

My role model

Guy Kawasaki, the founder of Alltop, is my inspiration in the field of Social Media Strategy. His innovative work life has been an inspiration of me. I have a couple of role models from my stint in IT life as well. One is my ex-colleague in my first company. His name is Muthuganesh Sankaran. He has moved on to become a Vice President in Citibank NA now. His passion for IT, his joyous approach to work life and his deep expertise in ECM space has been an inspiration for me. In addition Sunil KP, who was my first delivery manager in my ECM engagements has been one of the most impressive motivator and people's leader I have seen in my experience. Sunil was my manager in my Polaris days and he has moved on to take leadership roles in UST Global. My architect mentors in IBM like Joyil Jospeh, AB Vijayakumar are all my current inspirations for pursuing better heights in this role.

Company and job profile

I have joined IBM India in November 2011 as an IT Architect, specializing in the application architecture of ECM and Portal Ecosystem. IBM, constantly re-inventing itself as one of the World's most innovative organizations with thought leadership has provided me the opportunity to work on systems ranging from mainframes to mobility.

My strongest Skill

Social Media Strategy, Enterprise Content Management and Information Space modelling are my key skills that I have acquired from my work experience.

In addition a creative mind and innovative engineering approach are inherent in my professional and personal life.

Making job easier

Networking with Efficient people has helped my daily project and Solutioning activities a lot. In IT none can work in silos.

Books recommended

Books about the work culture of different companies and how effective leaders are born will be a good suggestion from my end. Understanding your company, your domain and your peers are as important as your technology stack.

Current Trends

In the field of IT, the widely recognized trends are Big Data, Mobility, Social Business and Cloud. Still I believe the advancements in material science and human machine interaction models can bring some paradigm shifts. Natural computing is another area I am curious about.